Local Sorority Looking to Merge with a National Chapter
 

At my university greek life is looking to expand its amount of national sororities on campus and decided to let my local sorority merge with a national in place of their planned extention (if we so choose.) We've formed a reseach committee and have spoken with the head of greek life to gather as much information as possible about various procedures that would have to occur for this to happen. However, we haven't found very much information about many things our members are asking about such as costs of national dues, the actual process for merging/ colonization, length of the colonization process, etc, due to NPC rules. While I'm not asking for specifics on what particular ogranizations do I was wondering if anyone here could give any general information about their dues, how national chapters feel about not being able to get a house soon after a charter (currently there's not enough room near campus for another sorority house), general merging process/ timeframe, and anything that you might feel would be helpful for us. Also, from my understanding, Panhellenic here would like to have this new chapter participating in formal recruitment in Fall 2008, does anyone know if we were to vote to begin the merging process as soon as possible, is this feasable? I hope this all makes sense, thanks a lot for your time and input!

My sorority is actually going through the extension process right now. We have three sororities coming to present this month. We got all that information through our greek life advisor that sent a letter to all the nationals (with the exception of the ones on our campus) stating that we were open for extension.

Any sorority that was interested sent us booklets, and binders filled with information about their organizations including the information you are looking for. The process, dues, length etc. are all different for different GLOs.

If the vote was to pass, and the stuff was in place I think it could be feasible to have a chapter up and running by then, but again it all depends on the organization. I think your best bet would be to talk to your greek life adviosr, or people on your local panhellnic counsel, they will be able to give you more information and let you know what needs to be done from here.

Good luck! Keep us updated!

I'm not sure about the mergin process but due to Nationals orgs. depends on the chapter. There are Nationals fees that will have to be paid. Some are one time fee like pledging fee, initiation fee, and purchase of your pin. For AXiD i have seen dues range from $300-$2000. It all depends on the school you are in. The higer price is mostly if the chapter has a house. That is also on factor of dues. The first semester is usally the most expensive because of the one time fees.

Having a house will definately increase the cost of the sorority.When I joined my chapter, my first semester the dues were high. I was paying for initiation fees, badge fees, a parlour fee (for house upkeep since I didn't live in the house), and for food. It was quite expensive.

A chapter with a house will pay more in dues than a chapter that has a dorm or a chapter that has neither a dorm or house.

Depending on when y'all pick the chapters you want to possibly merge with and when you hear their presentations, y'all could feasibly be ready to go for formal fall 08.

You would have to go through the nationals "pledge" (say that in quotation marks because I know not all the nationals call their new members pledges, but for lack of a better word) period which could be 8 weeks all the way to a semester. Then initiation then prepare y'all to rush for the new chapter.

Thanks for all of the posts! Since I've been getting a few PMs about other nationals that arent NPC sororities, I'd just like to mention that if we did affiliate with a national chapter the university specifies that it must be an NPC sorority. My university will no longer be allowing sororities on campus that are not members of NPC due to liability. They've also told us that if we didn't vote to merge we would probably be asked to merge or leave campus in a few years :(

Our greek life advisor has told us everything she knows about the merging/ extension process. My university hasn't extended since 1989 so she's never been a part of the extension process and has absolutely no clue about the process of merging a local.

Another question I forgot to ask: How big are sorority colonies usually? We currently have around 50 members in my local chapter (will probably drop by 10 or so if we vote to merge) and some girls are concerned with recruiting more founding mothers. Also, some girls are concerned that since quota of the NPC sororities has been around 60 new members per sorority in fall recruitment leading to a total of around 125 that we would be expected to raise our numbers to 100-125 in our first year of recruitment. While I highly doubt this would be the case, could anyone say that it would be? Thanks again for all of your help!

The numbers all depend on your school. Some schools range from 10-100+

I'd like to point out that you would not just be "affiliating" with a national/international sorority. As a chapter, you would be expect to adhere to their rules, practices, traditions, etc. You would have few vestiges left of your local. Just something to consider. I assume you or your school have contacted the National Panhellenic Conference office?

If you haven't done so yet, visit the National Panhellenic Conference extension website HERE. There you can fill out a brief form and you will be able to download all the info you will need to start the process.

In terms of your numbers, the exact details depend on the organization you select to join but basically you will be expected to be competitive. The national organization will likely give you tons of help, and you may do a special recruitment after regular recruitment in order to get your numbers up.

This is absolute bullshit and discrimination on the part of the school. Do they think NPC groups are perfect and never have any "liability"?

Of course they have liability. They also have and can afford liability insurance to cover such problems.;)

So can other non-NPC groups.

True, but local groups probably can't afford as much insurance as NPC groups. And I'll bet the university meant NPC and NPHC groups....or at least groups with a national presence where the liability will be spread over a bigger group...thus lessening the liability to the university.

We're not talking local groups - we're talking National, Non-NPC (there are a few).

I didn't say ANYTHING about local groups. Her post said they have to join an NPC group - they cannot join a non-NPC sorority. This includes GSS, SAI, KBG, OPA, and of course all the NPHC groups.

Once again, this is total discrimination on the part of the school.

Yes but GSS and OPA are service sororities, and SAI is music related, those aren't just "social." The impression I get from the OP is that they're socially oriented.

I agree with you about KBG but they aren't as well known. I guarantee no one at my school had ever heard of them, greeks or administration.

My guess is that the policy is a sort of "stick with what we know" sort of thing. It's discriminating, but not necessarily in the negative sense. I'm not sure that there's any way to force a university to recognize another national.

I consider NPHC chapters quite different as I don't think they absorb locals and may have city-wide chapters in the area.

It may be discrimination on behalf of the school, but they're just trying to protect themselves from any lawsuits that could occur with a non national organization. It's a HUGE liability on behalf of our ogranization and the university itself to not have national backing if an incident were to occur. We already have chapters of Gamma Sigma Sigma and the other co-ed service fraternity at this campus, but that doesn't matter since we're looking to continue the tradition of a social organization. Since we are currently associate members of PHA (unable to vote or hold office) we're definately wanting to have full membership after extension. Therefore, a NPC sorority is really our only option either way. We have not spoken to NPC in regards to extension because PHA has not voted to extend yet since my chapter has yet to vote on a possible merger. We will be voting on if we want to merge or not at the end of the month with pha voting to extend by the end of the semester. I really wish NPC could at least tell us ballpark figures about cost, time length, and the general process before we as a chapter vote on merging or not because many girls in my organization are concerned about that. While most of the girls in my sorority are persuaded that going national would be the best solution to our many problems, if we had more information about the process I think more girls would be for it. Also, I'm well aware about what going national would do to us as a chapter regarding rituals, name, mascot, flower, etc. We would no longer be able to keep these things but would be allowed to teach our history of it in new member education. This seems like a small sacrafice to better our ogranization as a whole.

Your best bets for figuring out the cost as far as dues and such would be to talk to the other chapters on campus. Dues vary nationally but are usually fairly similar for chapters on the same campus.

Timewise if you vote on this and PHC agrees you will get stuff from NPC members rather quickly. You choose three to come and present. That may take until the fall depending on how quickly the rest of this moves. THey present, you choose and they will colonize fairly quickly from there.

It would also be worth contacting someone from the NPC because even though you haven't voted yet they can give you better info on the process.

There are national social sororities that are not part of NPC. NPC is not the be all and end all when it comes to national groups. These groups also have liability insurance, etc.

They would still be non voting members of panhellenic, we wish to be able to vote and hold office.

A campus's local panhellenic can allow a non-NPC group to be full members, vote and hold office. This goes for non-NPC nationals and locals.

If you WANT to go NPC, that's fine...just don't let the school bully you, if that isn't what you want. There are other options. It just sounded from the tone of your previous posts that NPC was being pushed down your throat and you had a lot of concerns.

If you do choose an NPC group, yes they probably will expect you to get your numbers up to be competitive with the other NPC groups on campus before you are fully chartered. And I'll go so far as to say if they don't, look out. They should also give you help with this, as Heather mentioned.

You should also be aware that the women who are currently members of the sorority may not automatically be slotted for exec board positions - they may want everyone to "start fresh" and not give preference to the original sorority members. This depends on the group. Also, your sisters might have to in effect rush again with the national group - that is, some women might not be chosen to become part of the national organization. Again, this depends on the group.

I don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but at a campus where NPC sororities are the size you mentioned they are, you need to really be careful of what you're doing.

Thank you for pointing this out! Kappa Beta Gamma is fully involved with NPC on every campus we are a part of and have members representing as officers both on campus panhell as well as other Greek councils. Typically NPC exists on campus to create unity amongst ALL the sororities because the mission is to promote Greek life on campus. It only hurts everyone if they refuse by dividing GLOs and allowing advantages in different ways. (for example, a sorority that isn't involved under NPC doesn't have to abide by rush rules set by NPC). I agree that a campus that simply denies a sorority from colonizing because they are not NPC is behaving ignorantly without being fully aware of the facts. We have full insurance coverage, a risk management program, etc....all the main reasons schools want their locals to "go national."

KBG had a chapter at your school...are you sure they'd never heard of them?

I can understand your concerns. Based on the timeline that you laid out, voting completed and approved at the end of the semester, your school will be announced in the NPC Extension Bulletin just before summer break. You, the collective "you", may not start to get packets until early September. You decide which groups you want to present and then the presentations start. These are usually spread out over a few weeks and you may be looking at mid-October before voting on which group to colonize. (Now that I have laid out that possible timeline, it really is up to your group, Panhellenic and your adminstration to set the timeline. I have seen some crazy short turnaround times and others that were very generous.)

Each group is very different in terms of how they apporach colonization. It also depends on the motivation of the colony and the school calendar. Say a group uses a 10-week colony format. It may actually be longer because a) a school break falls within that those 10 weeks or b) 45 girls are needed to charter but at week 7, the colony only has 35. The same 10-week format could be shortened if all the requirements are met before week 10. It just really depends.

As for the cost, yes, each group does have a different fee schedule. The best place to gauge how much you all will need to pay is to look at the costs of chapters already on your campus. You won't be able to get specifc national fee information from potential groups until you start receiving packets.

You mentioned housing. If housing is something that the other NPCs have, a prospective chapter will want to have one too. Otherwise, the new chapter will not be competative in that aspect. Do not answer this here but it is something that the adminstration will have to ponder. What sort of comparable housing arrangement are they willing and/or able to provide? Again, do not answer that here.

Housing while not a dead end for a new group, it is a plus if all others have a house.

If this group does get a NPC who are interested, they can always rent a house. It may not be a big house but something with letters of the owner allows it and be a central meeting point for the members.

The first house as a local that we rented, we stuffed guys in because everyone wanted to live there and the second was the old PKA house which was rented after they built a new house that they owned. Our third house is one that we purchased which has been torn down and a new house built.

It will take a lot of hard work on the part of the members and if they are serious, it can come true!

Good luck!:)

A sorority seeking to affiliate with the NPC on a campus where there are already NPCs will have specific rules about housing. There are many rules governing NPC housing under the Unanimous Agreements. I suggest you study a Green Book before speaking any further about what this sorority will have to do.

And of course you help is special in helping this poster.:eek:

This is about her and the group that she is trying to start and trying to find out how to go about it!

If you wish to help then please do!:)

This not about you and me or anyone else it is about helping others which you seem to have a problem with!:(

The best way to "help" is to provide answers based on knowledge, not supposition. I would hate to have someone who didn't know what he/she was talking about offer advice which turned out to be wrong, and thus hinder the local group as they explore their options.
There are two organizations the local has to answer to - their campus administration, and the national (be it NPC or not) group(s) which the local wishes to consider. As far as NPC costs, the advice to check out what your current NPC groups charge is good. You might also be able to ask individual groups via their headquarters what their initiation fee, badge cost, and that sort of thing is - I think that is considered pretty open, and the worst that can happen is they say "no" (although I think if you explain your situation most groups would be willing to provide information.)
Best of luck - it may be difficult, but ultimately I believe it will work out for the best. One big advantage to a national is the network all over the world. I've met wonderful sisters everywhere I've gone.

If the university officials are telling you that you can't afflilate with a non-NPC sorority, then it is because of lack of knowledge about non-NPC sororities or just wanting to make their job as easy as possible!! Believe me, interest groups of my non-NPC sorority are told this all the time by the Greek Life offices and it is simply not true. Sometimes nationals has to talk with the Greek Life or higher ups, but eventually the correct university people are talked to and everything is sorted out.

In terms of full membership vs associate membership in Panhel, that is probably a lack of knowledge of national non-NPC sororities by Panhel members. Where chapters of my sorority want to be full members, it has been a matter of working with the Panhel and sometimes rewriting the Panhel constitution to recognize both NPC and national non-NPC groups. Other chapters rather just stay associate members, because the Panhel dues for full members are so high.

So if you research and actually find a national non-NPC sorority that has similar values and goals of your sorority, then contact them. Most national non-NPC sororities over 5 chapters have at least $1 million coverage as required by a lot of universities. Also, a national non-NPC sorority will most likely not require a house and will have reasonable national dues and fees.

If you have any alumnae, getting them involved in the local-to-national process and talking with the university may also help your position. Sorry for being so long winded -- I just wanted to help you understand that you do not need to limit your options this early in the process! Good luck!!

I just wanted to point out that most NPCs do not require their chapters to be housed, unless the campus environment requires it. Some campuses, not having a house wouldn't matter, others it would be a complete deal-breaker.

Just to add on to that:

A house isn't always something that has to happen right away either. If the campus culture has been supportive of a local, it'll probably support a non-housed NPC until they can managed to get a house. I believe the OP said that other chapters on her campus are housed.

I'm not sure the implication of PhiRhoSister's comment about "reasonable national dues and fees." Are you implying that NPC chapters don't have these?

The most expensive part of a chapter is the house (if there is one) and in every situation I've seen living in the house is cheaper than living on campus.